Every Tiny Tear
by Bexish
Summary: What happened after Rory and Jess turned right. This takes place during episode 2x19, Teach Me Tonight.


A/N: This is super duper short and I'm sure there are tons of stories out there like this but I wanted to give it a shot! I don't usually write serious things and who better to try it out on than Rory and Jess? The title is from "Doctor" by Emily Kinney which is actually a very cute song with a tone that's totally wrong for this, but hey, what can you do?

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><p>For one blissful second, Rory didn't realize what was happening. It all happened so quickly. She was in the middle of telling a story about Madeline and Louise when everything seemed to come together at once. The car veered to the side and then there was a harsh jolt, combined with the sharp, burning smell of the airbag inflating. The worst part was the sound of metal on metal, the sound of Rory's beloved car crunching against a bench with an ad for Doose's on it. Rory's first thought wasn't about her car, though. "Jess!" she cried, looking over at the driver's side.<p>

He was partially covered by the airbag, but waved her off. "I'm fine," he said, much to Rory's relief. Noticing that there was no passenger side airbag, Jess flinched. "What about you?" he asked, his eyes looking bright and startled in the dark.

Rory shook her head. Her seatbelt had caught her, and they hadn't been going fast. As far as she could tell she wasn't bleeding and though she was dazed nothing seemed to hurt too badly. "What happened?" she asked instead, looking out the window at the dark street. There weren't any other cars around and the pavement was dry, so she didn't see an immediate cause for them to be haphazardly smashed against a bench.

"There was an animal," Jess said, unbuckling his seat belt and pushing the air bag off of him. "A cat or a possum or something, I don't know. I dodged it but we went too far in the other direction." Noticing Rory taking her own belt off, he put a hand on her arm. "Don't move, okay? I'm going to call 911."

"It's just the car, though," Rory protested. It was dumb, but from the second the car had stopped she had been thinking of how disappointed her mom would be. She was supposed to be studying at the diner. She didn't want the night to end with the authorities involved. "Really, let's just get back to the diner and we can figure something out there." She tried to push her door open and bit back a gasp. Rory hadn't noticed it before, but her wrist was starting to swell. Moving it so Jess couldn't see, she gamely climbed out of the car.

It didn't matter, though. Jess had already walked to a nearby payphone and was dialing. "You didn't have an airbag," he pointed out, sounding shaken. "You should go to the hospital." He raked his hand through his hair and tapped his foot impatiently. "Why aren't they answering? They're the frigging police department."

"I'm fine!" Rory insisted shrilly. Even saying the word police was scary. She tried to walk over to Jess to stop him, but after a couple of steps she felt dizzy. She quickly sat down on an unscathed part of the bench and tried to look casual. "It's all good," she added a little faintly. She didn't want to have to go to the hospital, but a part of her was a little bit worried something really was wrong. Her arm didn't look so great, and she couldn't tell if she got dizzy because of the shock of everything or because she had injured her head somehow.

Jess wasn't having any of her complaining. "An ambulance will be here in a few minutes," he said, sitting down on the edge of the bench. He looked at her car and grimaced. "I don't know about your car though. It looks pretty messed up."

Rory shook her head, glad that her dizziness was passing and her head didn't seem to ache. "It's just a car," she said, though it hurt to see her beautiful blue car so banged up. Nobody had ever given her something so wonderful before. Dean had worked so hard to make it the perfect car for Rory.

Dean. Now that they were out of immediate danger, her thoughts went to Dean. Rory was worried about her mom being disappointed with her, but she was just as worried about Dean being upset with her. She knew he would be, and why shouldn't he be? She had been out with someone she knew he hated, and she had told her mom to lie for her about it if he asked. It had seemed like a reasonable request when she and Jess were just supposed to be studying at the diner, but this didn't look so good. In a few days he would be home and she would have to tell him all about it. If she lost her car that would be one thing, but she didn't want to lose her boyfriend too. She took a deep breath to help her calm down, but a tear slipped down her cheek anyway. Jess saw it before she could wipe it away.

"Hey, it'll be okay," he said, a little awkwardly. He sounded like he was trying to be calm, but Rory thought he was probably just as rattled as she was. "Maybe Gypsy will be able to fix it," he added unconvincingly. Rory could tell that even as he said it, he knew it wasn't really about the car. For a second he looked angry, but the expression melted off his face as soon as it came and was replaced with a blank mask.

In the distance Rory could see the flashing lights of a police car and she looked at Jess, suddenly terrified. "Jess, I—"

"I'll talk to the police," Jess assured her before she could fully dissolve into panic. He moved like he wanted to touch her, but he stood up instead with his hands balled into fists. "It was my fault." Rory winced at the hard resoluteness in his voice.

"It wasn't your fault," she said quietly, watching the lights get closer. The red and blue lights cast an eerie glow on the street. She'd never had to deal with the police before, and she wasn't feeling properly prepared to do it now. She'd never so much as been faulted for speeding, and now there was probably going to be some sort of report about their accident. And even though she hadn't been driving, it was her car. What did that mean for her? Suddenly, her grandpa came to mind. She had gotten insurance set up for her car as soon as possible and she didn't know what happened when someone who wasn't on the policy got into an accident. In her distress, she wasn't even sure how insurance worked. Was it even legal for someone to drive a car if they weren't on the insurance policy? As the police pulled up to them, she realized she didn't even know if Jess had a driver's license. She had just assumed she did, and she hoped she was right.

True to his word, Jess immediately started talking to the police. After giving Rory a cursory nod, they left her alone. The ambulance arrived a minute or two later, and the paramedics instantly descended on Rory. She was trying to listen to what Jess was telling the police, but was too preoccupied with the medics asking her dozens of questions. In the end, they seemed satisfied that she wasn't about to collapse, but they didn't have good news for her. "It looks like your wrist could be broken," one of them told her. "We should get you to the hospital."

"Broken?" she said, her voice wavering. She was barely even aware of the medic helping her into the back of the ambulance. "It can't be broken. I've never had a broken bone before." One of the paramedics patted her shoulder and assured her that she would be fine, but she didn't feel fine. An hour ago she and Jess had drinking coffee and studying in the diner, and now everything was out of control. She hated feeling out of control, and she hated herself for agreeing to go for ice cream. She didn't hate Jess, though. In her panic and anger, there was just no room.

While one medic got her situated in the ambulance the other looked Jess over, but she must have decided he was fine because she let him keep talking to the police. From where she was sitting in the ambulance, he felt too far away. "Jess!" Rory called desperately. She had the ridiculous thought that he could ride to the hospital with her, but as soon as Jess looked up at her with his worried eyes she lost the courage to ask. "What are you going to tell Luke?" she asked instead. It was the first time Luke had crossed her mind and it occurred to her that he would probably notice they weren't back soon.

Jess shook his head. "It's okay," he said. He walked up to the ambulance and locked eyes with Rory. He tried to sound encouraging, but his body language didn't match his words. She had never seen Jess look anything but unaffected and confident, and now he seemed unsure and scared. Even as he stood in front of her Rory could feel him pulling away, creating a distance between them that she didn't want. "It'll all be okay," he said again, backing up so they could close the ambulance doors. The siren blared as they pulled away, and as she watched Jess through the back windows she made the mistake of deciding to believe him.


End file.
